Hilco Real Estate Finance (HREF) has completed a £4.5m, 24-month bridging loan secured against Stonham Barns, a 130-acre holiday park in Suffolk. The transaction highlights HREF’s growing footprint in the alternative real estate lending market and its ability to underwrite complex, non-traditional assets.
Located near Ipswich, Stonham Barns has been in operation for over a decade and comprises more than 400 lodge, static caravan and touring caravan pitches. In addition to its accommodation offering, the park includes a retail village, golf course, theatre and fishing lakes — contributing to its appeal as a year-round leisure destination.
The facility provided by HREF enabled the borrower to refinance multiple existing debt facilities and optimise the capital structure of the business to support future growth.
Valuations were carried out by Christie & Co, with Lawrence Stephens acting as legal advisers. Industry veteran Michael Clark, formerly group sales and operations director of Parkdean Resorts, also provided strategic input on the transaction.
Brad Altberger, chief executive of HREF, said: “As we continue to expand our offering, this loan is another example of our ability to lend across a wide variety of asset classes. The holiday park sector is a challenging subset of the wider real estate market, but at a time when both traditional and alternative lenders are retreating from this niche market, HREF was able to leverage the deep expertise of our team to quickly extend a credit facility that allowed the borrower to achieve its financing objectives. While other lenders continue to retrench, we aim to markedly increase our exposure to the sector.”
Max Lewis, chief investment officer at HREF, added: “Stonham Barns was a complicated and intricately structured loan featuring alternative real estate that is not widely understood. HREF has both the financial and human capital to execute such loans in short order and subject to our borrowers’ constrained timelines. Following the completion of the Stonham Barns loan, HREF continues to build its book and its presence in the bridging market.”
Launched in 2023, HREF has quickly become one of the UK’s most active specialist bridge lenders, offering loans ranging from £3m to over £150m. The firm provides tailored and flexible property finance solutions across all sectors and capital structures, including short-term bridging loans for growth, acquisition, development exits and refinancing needs.
A fully integrated subsidiary of Hilco Global, HREF has the support of a multi-national financial services group with more than $3bn in assets under management. With a team of experienced finance professionals based in offices across the UK, HREF is targeting significant loan book growth throughout 2025.
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